Every year, BroadbandNow delves into the world of municipal broadband with a report on which states have made it illegal for towns and cities and counties to set up their own ISPs, or make it really difficult. The report for 2020, written by telecom analyst Kendra Chamberlain, has a silver lining, though. Since the 2019 report, the number of states actively blocking or outlawing municipal broadband has dropped from 25 to 22. If your state above is in green, start searching now for a municipal provider—or at least for a smaller, faster ISP.
Those three states now allowing muni-based internet are Arkansas, California (which actually passed a law in 2018 to stop restrictions), and Connecticut. In addition, seven states now have task forces in place to try to get more broadband: Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.
The reason tends to be that lawmakers finally see the gaps in broadband coverage, and sometimes only locals are in a position to do something about it—or they're the only ones who care, since major ISPs don’t want to move into an area that won't give them more cost benefits.
By BroadbandNow's count, there are 331 municipal networks in the US. It knows, because the site exists to help people find internet service and tracks the pricing. It also found that the states with obstruction on muni networks all have higher-than-average ISP costs, based on pricing from Q2 2020. At least 55 percent of the US population with access to wired broadband live in states with no muni network roadblocks.
The barriers to entry vary from state to state, and some states have multiple barriers (as indicated in the map above). Some are vague bureaucratic nonsense; some are outright laws against selling local internet access that isn't from a private telecom (looking at you, Missouri and Nebraska), referendum requirements that benefit the telecoms, funding barriers. One state—Nevada—puts a weird population cap on which areas can have muni networks. And of course, one puts such excessive taxes on muni broadband that it's almost impossible to establish; nice going, Florida. Several states have multiple roadblocks on the books: Virginia, Wisconsin, and Alabama are the worst offenders.
Despite these stumbling blocks, some of these states have managed to establish muni networks. Florida actually has two. Tennessee has bureaucratic limits, but that hasn't stopped the Electric Power Board (EPB) of Chattanooga from delivering one of the first and best 1 Gigabit muni fiber networks for customers (it frequently appears in our Fastest ISPs stories)—but it can't extend outside its electric service area.
If you're curious for more details, you'll find plenty, plus the full methodology of how BroadbandNow comes to these conclusions, in the full report.